DIETARY MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

Identifying the Best Mineral Supplements

Minerals are absolutely necessary for life. Together with vitamins, they help in controlling all of our metabolic processes.

For example, enzymes speed up chemical reactions in our bodies, and coenzymes assist them in their life-sustaining functions. Minerals are essential components in these enzymatic reactions and thus share a critical responsibility for the correct functioning of your body.

Minerals serve as cofactors for all the biologic reactions necessary for energy, growth and repair.

Plants take inorganic minerals from the soil and convert them to organic minerals. You get your dietary intake of minerals largely by eating these plants or animals that have eaten them.

The mineral content in soil has been falling for at least the last 70 years. This is reducing the mineral contain in fruits and veggies. To read about this problem please visit my why supplements page.

This raises the highly likely scenario of mineral deficiencies.

Not only do our fruits and vegetables contain only a fraction of the vitamins and minerals they once did – but the average western diet today concerns very little fruit and vegetables at all.

A large percentage of the population therefore suffers from marginal nutrient deficiencies without even knowing it. That’s because marginal deficiencies do not create ‘classical’ deficiency symptoms.

With these factors in mind you can see that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get the amounts of minerals you need for optimal health from diet alone.

Quality dietary mineral supplements have become essential for maintaining good health. An imbalance of even one mineral, if not corrected, can start a chain reaction of imbalances leading to illness (see below).

The Benefits of Dietary Mineral Supplements

The first point I’d like to make up front is that dietary mineral supplements are not substitutes for food. You should not rely on supplements to look after your mineral needs in the absence of any fruits and vegetables in your diet. This applies to using a multi vitamin and mineral product as a means of supplying all vitamins and minerals in the diet.

OK, before discussing the benefits of supplements let’s quickly look at some basic vitamins and minerals facts.

Here's What You Need To Know About Minerals!

In the simplest sense they are naturally occurring found in the earth - and you know from above that plants draw them in from soil and convert them into an organic form.

Minerals are grouped into two categories: macro and micros.

Macro-minerals such as calcium and potassium need to be consumed in greater quantity than micro-minerals such as selenium and chromium.

Please note – as with vitamins it is possible to develop mineral toxicity with minerals because they accumulate in bone and muscle tissue. You need to exercise caution and avoid large quantities over a prolonged period of time.

Dietary supplements offer significant health benefits by helping to ensure your body gets all the minerals it needs. Remember - minerals play a central role in many crucial functions in your body:

Proper composition of blood and bone

Maintenance of healthy nerve function

Regulation of muscle tone – including that of the muscles of the cardiovascular system (1)

Dietary mineral supplements help to keep your mineral levels in balance because mineral imbalances can play havoc with your health!

Your body must maintain its proper chemical balance. This balance depends on your levels of different minerals and especially the ratios of certain mineral levels to one another. The level of each mineral has an effect on every other so if one is out of balance – all mineral levels are affected. (2)

But wait - don’t run out and immediately buy a multi dietary mineral supplement because taking dietary mineral supplements on their own when you don’t need them will cause more problems than good.

Unless you have been diagnosed with a specific mineral deficiency you shouldn’t take dietary mineral supplements – otherwise you’ll create imbalances that weren’t there to begin with. What you need instead is a combination of vitamins and minerals together (in safe proportions).

Minerals act as cofactors for vitamins and vice versa. They need to work together for proper utilization. That’s why multivitamin supplements always contain minerals. Dietary mineral supplements in isolation are for treating diagnosed problems only.

Those people most at risk with more significant mineral deficiencies are those on low calorie diets, the elderly, pregnant women and vegetarians.

A further benefit of some minerals is that they act as potent antioxidants which neutralize dangerous free radicals in your body. Selenium is a powerful mineral antioxidant which works together with vitamin E. Zinc is another common antioxidant.

What to Look for in Dietary Mineral Supplements

As I mentioned above – it is not difficult to overdose on minerals - some will simply be excreted but some can do serious harm to your body. So, please only use a supplement that lists the elemental amount for each mineral so you know exactly how much you will be taking in.

You must be concerned with the ELEMENTAL AMOUNT – so be sure it’s listed (if you're not sure just fire off an email to the company and ask them if the mineral totals shown on the supplement label are ELEMENTAL AMOUNTS)!

Please be sure your supplement is science-based and has been formulated by a bio-scientist – not a physician or marketer!

That way you can be sure the minerals have been included in balanced amounts. Some minerals utilize the same metabolic pathways in your body so they compete against one another – ending up with too much of one and not enough of another – imbalance! You need the experience of a qualified scientist to overcome complex bio-chemical problems like this.

The supplement company must manufacture its own products and control the manufacturing process through ALL STAGES. No contracting out of any parts of the manufacturing process.

To guarantee absolute safety, purity, and potency all raw materials must be sourced from GMP registered and audited facilities. All ingredients must have a Certificate of Analysis (COA) on file confirming their potency.

To further ensure safety and ingredient amounts in accordance with label claims, be sure the manufacturer's equipment and processes are GMP compliant at a pharmaceutical level – this is the highest standard possible for the manufacture of nutritional supplements.

Very Very Very few supplement companies achieve this level!

The product should come with a 100% money back guarantee - with no ridiculous conditions such as 30 days! The manufacturer must be prepared to stand by their product. This has become far more commonplace these days however there are still well known companies out there who will not stand by their products. It's still a case of 'Buyer Beware'.

Which Dietary Mineral Supplements Get My Vote?

'Total Balance'

This is a benchmark, elite grade health supplement which is manufactured by the Xtend-Life company, based in New Zealand. Total Balance is most definitely NOT a multi vitamin/mineral supplement - but rather a cutting edge, multi nutrient vitamin / health supplement.

In my opinion, Total Balance is the most sophisticated and best performing supplement you can get your hands on. It offers unmatched value for money and the company guarantees that (you can read all about that on the product pages at the Xtend-Life website .

I recommend it to you with the utmost confidence because I know how much it has helped me and my family members since the year 2000. That is 15 years now and in that time there hasn't been another health supplement come along that can beat or even match Total Balance. My research confirms that.

There are 7 different versions of Total Balance and these fantastic formulas have been reformulated and 'revved up' 8 times in that period.

The 8th generation Total Balance formulas were released in 2014! A fantastic benefit for supplement consumers who naturally want the best from the latest developments in nutritional science. This is something that the huge multinational supplement companies cannot and do not do! Their huge and complex organizational structures make them slow, thus taking years for product reformulation.

(click on the graphic to learn more)

The 7 versions of Total Balance:

Men's Premium

Men's Standard

Women's Premium

Women's Standard

Unisex Premium (teenagers
> 12 years & post menopausal women)

Unisex Standard

Children (4 - 12 years)

Total Balance not only contains a full spectrum of balanced minerals and trace elements (in safe proportions), but its awesome formula also contains ingredients from ALL NUTRIENT CATEGORIES:

Methylation Agents

Anti-Glycation Agents

Adaptogens

Calorie Restriction Mimetics

Antioxidants

Amino Acids

Enzymes

Neuronutrients

Flavanoids

Carotenoids

Trace Elements

Vitamins

Minerals

Herbal Extracts

Co-factors

Total Balance meets EVERY ONE of the criteria mentioned on this page.

The different Total Balance versions contain an incredible range of 83 up to a whopping 97 ingredients!

If you're currently using a 'top of the line', multi ingredient health vitamin supplement - how many ingredients are you getting?

All these bioactive ingredients ensure that every organ and system in your body are targeted to strengthen overall good health, provide superior antioxidant protection and potent disease protection, and quietly in the background, work towards the ultimate goal of normalizing your aging process against the constant onslaught of 21st century living (and all it's detrimental effects on our health).

If you would like to see how Total Balance shapes up in head to head comparisons with other well known, market-leading vitamin/health supplements, please visit my best vitamin supplement comparisons and reviews page with this link.

If you would like to know more details about the 'Total Balance' range of health supplements, please click this link to jump over to the TB product pages at the Xtend-Life Website